


Treat Yoself

by JustATsunderePotato



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Comic Book Shop AU, F/F, One Shot, joyri - Freeform, kpop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 04:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16825021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustATsunderePotato/pseuds/JustATsunderePotato
Summary: Yeri always treated herself to something nice after working so hard at her soul-sucking job. She just didn’t expect to bump into a hot girl in the process.





	Treat Yoself

“HELLO, HELLO, MOSHI MOSHI, CIAO CIA-“  
  
As soon as those lyrics were heard, a hand instantly shot out from underneath the confines of the thin cotton blanket and pressed the snooze button on the phone before it finished playing the rest of the alarm tone. Even with closed eyes and in a partially awake state, Yeri was still able to find her phone without fail. She had plenty of practice from her days as a high school student.

Thankfully those days were behind her, but that didn’t mean that the suffering ended.   
  
With a yawn, the sleepy girl rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand before being met with the blurry sight in front of her. After blinking a few times, her vision steadily cleared up, showing her a good view of her room. Her messy room that she should have cleaned up, but hadn't. It was something on her to-do list, but just never happened. 

The room was long overdue for some cleaning. It was tiring having to constantly keep her eyes on the ground, looking for empty spots for her to walk through to avoid falling over her stuff while getting in and out of her room. The last time that happened, she almost knocked over her favorite unicorn lamp and broke it. The only reason why the lamp didn’t shatter into a million pieces was because Yeri’s plushies on the ground provided enough cushion for its fall. If it wasn’t for them, the lamp would’ve broke...along with her heart. She paid good money for that lamp.

Yeri mustered enough energy to sit up in bed. A loud pop could be heard as she harshly twisted her neck to the side: a daily ritual she practiced. It probably wasn’t good for her in the long run, but there was something strangely relieving about it.

If Saeron was around, she’d cringe in disgust and talk about how cracking her neck was bad and could lead to health problems in the future, blah, blah, blah. But Yeri didn’t care. All that mattered was that it felt good. Granted there were times when it sorta hurt, but the feeling of satisfaction she got from hearing that loud crack and the feeling of relief afterwards outweighed the pain. 

With tired eyes, she looked towards the other side of her room. Faint rays of sunshine crept in between the spaces of the dusty grey blinds that covered Yeri’s bedroom window, causing her to squint her eyes a little from the light.

Oh how she hated the sun with a passion. How dare it shine so brightly in the sky and warm the earth. Whenever that happened, that meant it was a new day. And when it was a new day, that meant that Yeri had to go back to another day in work hell.

The sleepy brunette yawned as she pushed the home button on her phone to see what time it was.

It was 6:16 a.m.

While checking the time, she saw a notification that her best friend, Saeron, had sent a text message at around midnight.

**[Ron: overwatch?]**

**[Ron: let’s slaughter all the n00bs lol]**

_Who says noob anymore nowadays_ , thought Yeri as she took a moment to think about how to respond. After deciding, she typed a quick response back and pressed send, only to realize too late that it was way too early to be sending any kind of message to anyone. But the deed was already done. The message was sent and Saeron’s phone probably buzzed near her head, playing the noise from the Mario games whenever the portly plumber got an extra life.

Oh well. At least Saeron couldn’t complain that Yeri didn’t respond at all. The proof was right there. The reply was about six hours late, but as the saying goes: better late than never.

The only reason Yeri didn’t respond was because she collapsed on her bed after getting home from a long shift at work. Otherwise, she would have loved to unwind after a hard day of dealing with entitled assholes who complained about every single thing for no reason.

 _That’s what I get for going to bed early I guess_. Yeri yawned while stretching her arms out in front of her. The poor girl was not a morning person by any means. She never was. Just hearing the word "morning" made her feel exhausted.

If Yeri had a choice, she’d sleep the whole day away. But sleeping and doing nothing didn't get the bills paid. If only she was a famous YouTuber with over a million subscribers, then it'd be a different story but....reality was cruel. 

_Damn it._

After stretching her arms out, Yeri figured since she was awake, she’d might as well look at her schedule to see what time her shift started. Better to check so she could relax for a bit before returning to hell.

“I hope I’m not closing tonight,” sighed Yeri as she scrolled through the photos on her phone, searching for the screenshot she took of her schedule for the week. People usually memorized their week’s schedule but not her. She took it day by day. It made things simpler that way. (Plus her memory wasn’t exactly the best despite being young so that was another reason.)

She hated the closing shift for one reason and one reason only: because there was always at least ONE person that came into her store five minutes before closing and took their sweet time shopping. Yeri couldn’t fathom why customers suddenly felt like taking a leisurely stroll around the store right before closing time when they could be doing literally anything else in the world like watch a movie, climb Mt. Everest, hug a tree, etc. But nope. They decided to visit her job.

Were customers unaware that they could order whatever they wanted from the internet and get it for a cheaper price? Or were they stuck in the Stone Age and thought that they always had to go to a real physical store in order to buy the products they wanted? Yeri didn't know, but what she did know for sure was that the customer was not always right. In fact, most of the time they were just plain stupid and lacked basic reading comprehension.

The opening shift was a pain as well because who wants to wake up at the crack of dawn just to work? The saving grace of that shift was that she got off at a decent time when everything was still open, but the closing shift was a completely different story.

Oh how she wished she could just shove all the customers that were lagging around the store right before closing into a shopping cart, push them out the entrance and send them on their way. Or throw them into a rocket and fly them into space, far, far, away so they’d never come back. That would have been way more effective than just constantly announcing that the store was going to be closing in x amount of minutes, hoping they would get the hint and feel pressured to hurry the hell up.

Inconsiderate jerks.

It took her a while to find the screenshot of her schedule since there were over a thousand pictures saved on her phone (which were mostly memes) but she didn’t give up. Yeri knew it was there....somewhere. She vaguely remembered taking a screenshot the day before, but all else failed, she could just check her schedule online. Only if she had to though. Inputting her username and password was way too much work in her eyes.  
  
After scrolling up her seemingly endless stream of photos for a bit, Yeri found the screenshot and zoomed in on the picture by pinching the screen with her fingers to get a better view of her schedule.

What she saw surprised her.  
  
It was Friday.  
  
But it wasn’t just any Friday. Nope. That’s not what made it special. As someone who worked as an underpaid and overworked slave of retail, Friday’s were no longer considered to be special days where one could look forward to the weekend to do whatever it is they wanted to do. In fact, she hardly ever got Friday’s off at all due to the unspoken rule that all retail workers must suffer.

The odds were in her favor for once in her life.  
  
Yeri had the day off. But that wasn’t the only thing that made the day special.  
  
It was payday.  
  
All those days of working tirelessly, dealing with entitled customers day in and day out, and fighting back the urge to smack some of her useless coworkers upside the head because they were lazy had finally paid off.

She did it. She survived and got paid for her efforts.

Yeri always did one thing when it was pay day: she treated herself to something nice. Sometimes it was a nice meal, maybe an extra side of dessert at her favorite diner, or a sandwich from her favorite shop downtown. Other times it was a brand new video game or extra downloadable content for a game she already owned. It just depended on what she was feeling.

She took a moment to think and asked herself a very important question: what should be her treat for this paycheck?

Her eyes moved from the phone in her hand to her shirt, a faded black t-shirt with the iconic black and yellow Batman symbol across her chest.

Suddenly it hit her. 

How could she have possibly forgot? She needed to pick up her comics from her favorite comic book shop!  
  
It was a place where she felt like she could relax and be free to indulge in one of her favorite hobbies that she had been doing ever since she was a kid and that was collecting comics.  
  
It had been a while since Yeri went there; at least over a month. She would have liked to have gone there more often, but it seemed like every other day some idiot at work called out and the store needed someone to pick up the slack. It just so happened that Yeri was management’s go-to person.  
  
Yeri supposed she should have felt proud that she was always the first one they called since it showed that they saw her as a reliable and hard worker, but truth be told, she felt exhausted and needed a break from her job. Otherwise she’d go into hulk smash mode and throw her computer chair out of the window in frustration.

It was settled. She was going to her old stomping grounds to pick up her comics.

But first, she needed to rest.  
  
“Those jerks better not call me today,” Yeri grumbled to nobody in particular as she pulled the blanket over her head and turned to lay on her stomach, burying her face into her pillow. The shop didn’t open until ten. That gave the overworked girl plenty of time to catch up on some well-deserved sleep.

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to venture back into dreamland.

* * *

The drive to the comic book store took Yeri about twenty-five minutes on a good day. 

It wasn’t like there weren’t any comic book stores that were closer to her. There was one but, truth be told, the owner of that specific store creeped her out. He would always stare at her a bit more than she thought was necessary with those gross little beady eyes of his. (Plus he smelled like a mixture of sweat and cat urine. She wasn’t sure if he was aware of it or just didn’t care, but he _reeked_.)

What made it worse is that he never uttered a word to her. Ever.  
  
Yeri said hi whenever she walked in his store because it was the polite thing to do (and because it would have been awkward to just walk in without saying anything), but he never said anything back. No hi. No bye. Not even a “have a good day” or nod of acknowledgement. The only time he talked was when he would tell Yeri her total for the purchases she made. That was it. Other than that, he didn’t say a word to her.

He’d talk to the other customers just fine, but when it came to her, it was like he didn’t even know how to speak. He just stared at her, silently. She even caught him smiling at her from the corner of her eye a few times.  
  
Yeri tried to live by the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” but she couldn’t help but get the feeling that he looked like the type to kidnap someone and keep them locked up in a basement as a prisoner for the rest of their life.

She wasn’t going to stick around and find out if her hunch was true or not.

After going to that shop a handful of times, Yeri decided that she was going to stick to the comic book store she had always gone to growing up. It was further away and took longer to get to, but it was worth it in her opinion. She knew the owner, Al, by name and he always welcomed her warmly whenever she came into the store. The kind elderly man wasn’t creepy at all; far from it. He would always give her a little extra something after each visit, an extra issue or toy from one of the gacha machines in his shop, despite her always saying that he didn’t have to do that. 

“Don’t worry about it,” he’d say with a dismissive wave. “You’ve been coming here since you were a baby. It’s the least I can do.”

And when she tried to give him money to pay for the extra little something she got, he’d give it back to her.

He really was a kind man. That was another reason why she always went to his store.

Thankfully the early morning rush was over by the time she finished making herself look somewhat presentable enough to go out in public and hit the road around 11:20 a.m.

Or so she thought.

Everything changed when she made it to the other side of the city. Traffic suddenly slowed to a crawl out of nowhere. As to why, Yeri didn’t know. Maybe someone got into an accident. It wouldn’t have been surprising if they did. 

Curious, she poked her head out of the window (but not too far out—she liked having her head attached to her body) and groaned when she saw the cause for the delay.

It was a freaking street sweeper. Why the city thought those outdated hunks of junk were effective in cleaning the streets was beyond her, but what made it worse was that those vehicles were slower than a turtle walking across the street. 

If there was another thing she hated with a passion besides her soul-sucking job, it was traffic. It didn’t help that a lot of people who were on the road didn’t know how to drive properly and acted stupid (just the other day she saw someone curl their hair while driving), but sometimes she got lucky on her trips across the city. 

Today was not one of those days. 

Oh well. Nothing could be done about the street sweeper making its rounds sweeping up the various trash people threw out onto the street.

She just hoped that the damn thing didn’t spontaneously break down and extend her wait by two hours. Spending her morning stuck in traffic didn’t sound appealing.

* * *

“Stupid street sweeper,” grumbled Yeri as she pushed the glass door of the comic book shop open, causing the bell attached to the top of the door to jingle.

As soon as she stepped inside and looked around, all traces of her anger melted away and she instantly felt at home.  
  
To anyone else, there was nothing inherently special about the store. It looked like a standard comic book shop one would find anywhere. There were shelves upon shelves of various comics throughout the store along with action figures, posters, trading card game sets, flyers for upcoming comic book conventions, and various other types of merchandise that tempted her wallet. There was even a little corner of the store dedicated to those fans interested in anime and manga due to its rising popularity over the years. (Yeri consciously avoided that section because if she looked around, she would be tempted to spend even more money.)  
  
To Yeri, it was heaven. Her sanctuary. A place where she could be free to indulge herself to the fullest without being judged.   
  
But there was something….off.

The store was empty. There was no soul in sight.

Al wasn’t reading the morning newspaper behind the counter near the cash register like he usually did whenever she visited. The usual nerds that hung around were nowhere to be seen either. Usually when she came in, they would hang around the tables playing their trading card games and talking about the latest expansion packs and what not. But this day, the seats were empty. 

_It’s open....right?_  
  
At least Yeri _thought_ the store was open. It had to be because she wouldn’t have been able to get inside if it wasn’t. The door would’ve been locked.

But people are only human and make mistakes sometimes. Lord knows how many mistakes Yeri made in her lifetime. The time she accidentally sprayed herself in the face with perfume when she was three. Eating a live spider because of some stupid dare. Catching feelings for a straight girl. Those were just the tip of the ice berg.

The comic fan shook her head. No need to think about those things now. She was in her happy place.

She pulled her phone out from the pocket of her faded purple basketball shorts and looked at the time. The store should’ve been opened by then since it was well past ten o’clock. It wasn’t a holiday either (to Yeri’s knowledge at least—she wasn’t an expert on such things.)

 _Strange._  
  
“Hello?” Yeri called out, expecting to hear a response from the owner, but was met with silence instead. The only thing she could hear was the hum of the air conditioner running, keeping the store nice and cool, a stark contrast to the sweltering summer heat outside. “Anyone there?”

Nothing.

Yeri turned around and looked back at the front door. The “we’re open” sign with a picture of Batman punching the Joker in the face was flipped over which meant the store was indeed open for business. There just wasn’t anyone she could see inside.  
  
The girl thought Al was probably busy doing something in the back like going through his stock or doing some cleaning. Maybe even using the restroom. If that was the case, he’d probably be back soon.   
  
Well if the store was open, and she wasn’t trespassing and breaking the law then everything should’ve been okay.  
  
She walked past the shelves of comics and other merchandise and made her way towards the back of the store where a collection of large plastic storage drawers were stacked in the corner.

Regulars could ask to have the store set aside issues of new comics of whatever series they were following at no charge for as long as they wanted. The only thing they asked was that patrons come in often enough so that their compartment wouldn’t be overloaded with comics.  
  
After having the same spot for years, it didn’t take long for Yeri to find the compartment with her name on it. It was the third one from the bottom. That and the little faded unicorn sticker she attached on it years ago made it easy for her to spot.

She got on one knee, slowly opened the drawer and looked inside. There stacked neatly on top of each other was her source of joy: her comics.

Yeri carefully pulled the issues out, taking care not to rub them against the underside of the compartment that was above hers. After taking them out, she placed them on a nearby table, inspecting them one by one to see if there were any rips, creases, or any other signs of damage. The staff were usually careful about handling the issues, (seeing as they were a comic store after all) but there were a couple of times where Yeri found some in her box that didn’t meet her high standards of perfection.

That was when she noticed the store hired new help. They must have hired someone new because two out of the twelve issues were damaged.

She bit the inside of her cheek. It could’ve been worse, but the fact that some of her comics got slightly bent on the edges bothered her. To others, it probably didn’t matter as long as the issue didn’t look like it went through a paper shredder, but to her, it mattered. A lot.

Carrying the defective issues in her hand, Yeri scanned the shelves, searching for the series they belonged to see if there were any duplicates that were in better condition. There had to be at least _some_ that were in better shape. 

The fan looked through the stack of comics, thumbing through issues, looking for issues #628 and #329. Thankfully they were recent enough that she found ones in better shape and didn’t have to go through the trouble of ordering them online. While searching, she came across a few limited edition variant covers and bit her lip, debating whether she should add them to her stack of comics before inevitably giving into temptation and taking them with her.

The collector in her couldn’t resist. She _had_ to have them.  
  
After spending some time inspecting the comics (again) and ensuring their condition was good enough for her, Yeri gathered them into one neat pile, walked to the counter, and set them in front of the cash register. But Al, a kind and patient old man who was probably in his sixties or seventies, was nowhere to be seen.  
  
Yeri leaned on the glass counter and tried to look past the area that was closed off to customers with highlighter yellow caution tape towards the far back corner of the store, but her eyes were immediately drawn to a big red button next to the cash register.

It must have been new because she didn’t remember ever seeing that there before in all the times she visited the shop.

As soon as she saw the button, she suddenly felt the childish urge to push it. She didn’t even know if it did anything or not; all she knew was that she wanted to push it. Just because.

Is that why bullfighters specifically used red flags when they taunted bulls? Because the color immediately captured the attention of all who looked at it? Yeri didn’t know, but what she did know for sure was that she really, really, really wanted to push that button.

Before she knew it, her hand was inching closer and closer to the red button. Just a bit more and she could push down on it and move on with her life.

She raised her hand up, preparing to bring it down and satisfy her impulsive desire.

_No._

Yeri slapped her hand away with her other hand, mentally chastising herself for almost giving in.

_Control yourself, Yeri. You’re better than this—_

Is what Yeri thought until her eyes landed on a cute little post it note shaped in the shape of a baby chick with “Please push if you need assistance with anything” written in neat handwriting.

That was the nail in the coffin. Technically she did need assistance. She couldn’t ring up the items herself. Well maybe she could if given the chance to play around with the register, but to do so without permission wasn just plain rude (and, not to mention, would look really bad on camera.)

She had no choice. She had to push the giant red button....otherwise she’d be stuck in the store forever. And while living out the rest of her days in a comic book store sounded heavenly, there was still more in life she wanted to do like see her pop star idol perform live (again.)

It was destiny.

Satisfied with her reasoning, Yeri placed her hand over the button yet again, letting it hover for a few moments before lowering it, lightly pressing down on that tempting item that tortured her so.

What happened after was unexpected.

Suddenly the world famous intro that played in the beginning of every Star Wars movie that everyone heard at least once in their lives started blaring. Yeri didn’t know what she was expecting, but getting her eardrums smacked by the theme song was not what she had in mind. She figured she’d maybe hear the sound of a nuclear missile being launched, or maybe even nothing at all, but she didn’t expect _that_.  
  
“Coming!” a voice from faraway called out. But there was something distinctly....feminine about it.

What she saw next made her jaw drop. 

The owner of that voice was definitely _not_ the portly kind old man Yeri had seen time and time again growing up. Instead a young girl, probably around her age if not a little bit older, with the brightest smile Yeri had ever seen ran from the back of the store to the counter   
  
The cashier was cute. Really cute.  
  
The weather app said it would be hot, but it suddenly felt like the room became ten degrees warmer as soon as Yeri laid eyes on the beautiful stranger with hair redder than Spider-Man’s web suit.

“Good morn—,” she tried to fight back against an oncoming yawn by placing her hand in front of her mouth but failed. The lime green tank top with the words “Sleep and Tacos” she was sporting showed off her well-toned arms. She lifted. There was no doubt about that. Yeri could appreciate those arms. They looked strong, dependable, and could probably knock her out if she got on the girl’s bad side.

And those shorts….hallelujah. Yeri wasn’t a religious person at all, but she felt like thanking the lord that girls existed and that it was summer and that the girl in front of her was blessing the world with her legs because they looked amazing.  
  
And there Yeri was, clad in a baby blue T-shirt with a faded picture of Squirtle on it and beat up looking purple gym shorts from her high school days that she should have gotten rid of, but kept for sentimental reasons, who looked and felt like a potato in comparison.

It didn’t help that she had her on her Harry Potter looking glasses because she misplaced her contacts a few days ago and had yet to go get replacements.

Great. Just great.

The one day she didn’t put effort into her appearance and a cute girl pops up in her life. It sounded like the type of scenario that only happened in those stupid romantic comedies Saeron loved watching so much.

Just her luck.  
  
“Sorry. I was doing some cleaning in the back,” the beautiful stranger apologized as she gave a sheepish smile before looking through the comics, carefully laying them out on the counter. She counted them with her fingers. “Did you find everything okay?”

How was it that this girl made a simple sentence that Yeri said every single day (without really meaning it) sound so....hot?   
  
“Yes!” responded Yeri a bit too enthusiastically than she expected. She didn’t mean to practically yell her response out, but the girl’s beauty tripped her up and fried the “act normal” file in her brain.

She was on autopilot and that wasn’t always the best idea. Yeri _always_ did something embarrassing while on autopilot. It was just a matter of when it would happen.  
  
The cashier’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment before she giggled, showing off her perfect white teeth. “I’m glad. You’re the first customer I’ve had so far this morning,” she commented while punching in some keys on the register.  
  
Yeri’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the girl’s words. It wasn’t like the store barely opened that hour. Surely there should have been at least _one_ person besides her that went into the store even if it was just the mailman dropping off mail. “Really?”  
  
“Well if you want to get technical, this one guy came in...” the red-haired beauty started as she carefully stacked the comics on top of each other, taking care not to mess them up.

Yeri listened intently. She wasn’t sure what happened, but the way the girl’s voice trailed off at the end gave her the impression that whatever happened was bad.

“But as soon as he saw me...” the taller girl paused for a bit, hands waving in the air like she was struggling to find the right words to say before continuing the story. “His eyes suddenly went wide, and he gasped really loudly before running out of the store.”

_What the hell._

People didn’t usually do that.  
  
“That’s…”

Multiple words flashed through Yeri’s mind. Peculiar. Bizarre. Unusual. Weird. She considered herself to be somewhat well-read and thought she had developed a pretty decent sense of vocabulary throughout her life as an avid reader of not only comic books, but also regular books as well. But at that moment, her brain seemed to halt and what ended up coming out of her mouth was a word she didn’t even think about.

“That’s rude.”

“I know right?” the other girl huffed as she rolled her eyes in annoyance, clearly offended by what happened earlier. “You would’ve thought he saw a ghost or something with how white his face turned when we made eye contact.”

She flipped her hair to the side, scarlet locks cascading down her shoulders and looked directly into Yeri’s eyes. “I mean do I look scary or what?” she asked Yeri while pointing to herself, pouting.   
  
“No you’re gorgeous,” Yeri immediately answered without thinking. The urge to shove her foot in her mouth at her sudden outburst was strong. She wasn’t the type to directly comment on how attractive she thought a person was, but that’s what happened when she was on autopilot.

It was the truth though. The girl in front of her really was gorgeous. Anyone who thought or said otherwise had to have been blind.  
  
The taller girl’s eyes lit up in amusement as a her lips curled up into a smile that made Yeri want to bash her head into the wall and scream. “You’re not bad looking yourself.”

Yeri coughed as she broke off eye contact, choosing to focus her attention on a vintage figure of a ninja turtle that was on display behind the person responsible for causing her heart to accelerate. She couldn’t help but feel a blush coming on.

And from how hot her face felt, she was most likely losing the fight.

 _Damn_ _it_.

“T-thanks.” It wasn’t often Yeri got complimented like that by a cute girl, so she didn’t really know what to say other than thanks. Saying thanks was part of standard protocol when receiving a compliment.

”Well I’m happy to know that I don’t look terrifying enough to scare people off with just a glance,” the beauty laughed. “But seriously...who does that?”

Yeri looked back at her and paused to think about the situation.

It certainly wasn’t something that happened in normal day-to-day interactions. Not that Yeri considered herself to be an expert or anything. Maybe the guy was too intimidated by seeing such a gorgeous woman and ran out because her beauty was just too radiant for his mere mortal eyes? If that was the case, Yeri could definitely see why.

Nevertheless, she felt like reassuring the other girl, even if it was just a little bit. 

“I wouldn’t take it personally.”

The gorgeous cashier tilted her head to the side cutely in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Yeri figured she should explain more. “The guy running off. Some of the guys that come here aren’t really…the best at talking to girls.” 

It was a bit of a stereotype, but was true to some degree. Not all of the guys that frequented the shop were like that of course, but there were some that couldn’t even make eye contact with Yeri even though they’ve seen her multiple times throughout the years.

Hell, even though Yeri was a girl herself, she still had trouble talking to cute girls in general. Honestly she didn’t know how she was able to keep herself (somewhat) composed in front of someone pretty. It was a mystery.

“Well I’m glad you do.”

“I honestly have no idea what I’m doing” is what she felt like saying, but couldn’t even though it was the truth. In all honesty, Yeri was just winging it and had gotten lucky so far. There was no way she was going to let that fact slip out though. Not in front of Joy.

The best course of action was to keep it cool and play it off as no big deal. “Well you learn a thing or two after interacting with the public for so long.”

“Ain’t that the truth. My name’s Joy by the way,” she said as she extended her hand out for a handshake. “Nice to meet you.” She paused, giving Yeri a cue to say her own name.

“I’m Yeri,” replied Yeri, shaking Joy’s hand. When was the last time she shook someone’s hand? She couldn’t remember but boy Joy’s hands were soft and felt nice. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeti? Like the brand?”

Did she screw up her own name? “Yeri.”

“Never met someone with that name before, but there’s a first for anything.”

“Yeri. Y-E-”

Joy chuckled. “I’m just messing with you.”

 _Oh_. Yeri felt embarrassed. She should have known that Joy was joking, but there have been instances in the past where people actually thought her name was Yeti for some reason.

“So,” Joy started as she pointed to the stack of comics on the counter in front of her. “You like Batman huh?”

The word “like” was an understatement. He was Yeri’s hero. The Dark Knight didn’t have any superpowers of his own, yet still went out there in the streets of Gotham and did all he could to protect the citizens. He relied on wits and skill instead of superpowers to keep himself one step ahead of the bad guys. There was something special about that, at least through her eyes.

“Yep.”

“Who’s your favorite villain?” the redhead asked, repositioning her arms so that her elbows were on the counter, and rested her head against a hand.

Yeri didn’t expect to be questioned like this. It wasn’t often that someone asked her about comics due to the general misconception that they were only for kids. But she went along with it. 

“Catwoman.”

“Me too. She’s hot.”

The infamous thief definitely was hot, but Yeri couldn’t help but be taken aback by how bluntly Joy said it. Was Joy perhaps...also gay? But then again, just because she called a fictional character hot didn’t automatically mean she was. 

She wasn’t going to just straight up ask the other girl such a personal question either. That would’ve been rude.

Yeri figured she might as well ask Joy another more less invasive question that she was curious about. 

“Are you new?”  
  
“Oh no—well kinda? The owner is actually my grandpa,” Joy explained as she waved a hand around, gesturing to the store. “I just help out around here sometimes.”

Yeri couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows in surprise. In all the years she had been going to the store, not once had she laid her eyes on someone as beautiful as her. Honestly, she couldn’t remember seeing any other girl walk into the store during her visits to the shop. If she did, she surely would have remembered Joy.

“Really? I didn’t know he had a granddaughter.”

“Well I’ll let you in on a little secret...” Joy trailed off as she gestured with her hand for Yeri to come closer, as if whatever she was going to say next was highly confidential.

How could she say no to a face like that? Yeri leaned over the counter and Joy motioned for her to turn her head. Her heart stopped when she felt the taller girl’s warm breath on her ear. “I’m the prettiest one,” she whispered. She gave Yeri a lethal wink after she pulled away. 

Yeri believed it.

She also thought that whatever citrusy lotion or perfume she was wearing smelled really, really good.

But wait....if Joy was the owner’s granddaughter, where was he?

“Where’s Al anyways?" He was a bit on the older side so maybe it was getting harder for him to continue to run the store. It wouldn’t have been surprising.  
  
“Oh he’s out getting breakfast and asked me to watch the store while he was gone,” explained Joy as she drummed her fingers on the counter. "Although honestly he could've just closed the shop because nobody else has stopped by.”

Yeri couldn’t help but feel bad for Joy. She knew the struggle. Shifts at work always felt a thousand times longer if you didn’t do something to keep yourself busy. Lord knows how many times she herself “accidentally” knocked stuff off the shelves just so she could have something to do when her store was dead.

“At least you have a lot of books to read to pass the time?”

It was true. With all the comics in the store, she was bound to have hours upon hours of entertainment. At least with the issues that weren’t sealed. The only downside was having to wait for the next issue to be released the following month. 

“True. But honestly I love interacting with people.” She winked.

Before Yeri had a chance to respond, she got distracted by something violently vibrating in her pocket.

It was her phone.

Now Yeri wasn’t exactly a chat-on-the-phone kind of person. She hated it. If she had to do it, then she could force herself to do so under certain circumstances (like when she had to be an adult and schedule her own doctor’s appointments), but she didn’t like talking on the phone in general. Due to this, she mainly talked to people through text messages.

There were only a select group of people in the world that called her: her mom, little sisters, and telemarketers.

She doubted it was her mom because it was during the time she usually watched her favorite drama on television. Nobody dared to bother her mom during her drama watching time unless they wanted to die a premature death.

It couldn’t have been her little sisters either since they were in school and didn’t even have cell phones because their parents thought they were too young to have one in the first place.

After going through the process of elimination, Yeri came to the conclusion that it was probably some telemarketer that somehow managed to get a hold of her number. She had signed up for random contests in the past to win Ariana Grande concert tickets (but didn’t win sadly.)

Even though Yeri was used to receiving calls from telemarketers, that didn’t mean that she was any less annoyed by them. There have been multiple instances where she got her naps interrupted by calls from them. 

_I swear if I get another call about refinancing a home when I’m not even a homeowner and interrupt my conversation with this cute girl—_

She took out her phone and frowned. Right when Yeri was going to push the deny button and add yet another fake number to her ever increasing block list, her finger stopped and hovered over the reject button.

The name that was flashing across the top of her screen made her want to chuck her phone into a nearby trash can, run over said trash can with a road roller, pour gasoline over everything, and set it on fire.

That was saying something because Yeri loved her phone fiercely.

The only reason Yeri didn’t destroy her phone was because phones were ridiculously expensive and she didn’t want to unnecessarily dish out money for a new one. (And also because she didn’t want the cute cashier to think she had some sort of anger management problem.)

Seriously her job couldn’t even let her have ONE day of peace? After working eight days in a row?

“What nerve,” she cursed under her breath. “Calling me like this.”  
  
“Ex-girlfriend?”  
  
The use of the word “girlfriend” caught Yeri off guard that she looked up from her phone and stared blankly at Joy. It took her a minute to process what the girl actually said.  
  
“What?” Apparently Yeri’s delayed reaction must have been funny because Joy’s face broke out in a smile and she giggled. And it was the most beautiful sound Yeri’s ears had ever been blessed with.  
  
“I asked if that was your ex-girlfriend calling you because your face suddenly scrunched up. Like you chomped on a lemon or something.”  
  
Yeri blinked once. Twice. Then when it finally registered in her brain what Joy said, she snapped out of it and fought so hard not to blush. “No it was just work.”  
  
“Oh? Why didn’t you answer it?”  
  
“Because it’s my day off and I deserve a break,” Yeri responded as she turned her phone on silent. Screw her job. She’s done for them time and time again. If someone called out, then oh well. They were on their own.   
  
“Right on,” Joy said, putting out her closed fist out towards Yeri for a fist bump. “Gotta stick it to the man!”

Yeri didn’t usually do fist bumps, but something told her to do it anyways.

Suddenly the room became silent. Yeri always hated it when these dreaded moments of silence happened in conversations. 

"Oh sorry. Here I am talking like there's no tomorrow when you probably have stuff to do," apologized Joy as she broke the silence and recounted the comics again. It wasn’t surprising that she probably forgot the number of comics Yeri wanted to buy. They talked for a bit after all; something that Yeri didn’t experience often at her own job because it seemed like everyone needed her help with something somewhere.

Honestly Yeri didn't have any plans for the day other than stay in bed and read her comics. Maybe play some video games while eating cheap greasy pizza if she felt like it. That was about it. 

She wasn't going to say that out loud though. That would've made her seem like some loser that didn't have any friends. (Which wasn't true.) She had friends. They just all had conflicting schedules and couldn’t hang out as often as they did when they were younger.

Such was the sad life of a working adult.

So she said what she felt was the normal thing to say. “Ah no that’s okay. It’s not like I’m in a rush or anything.”

“Do you need anything else? Plastic sleeves for your comics?” asked Joy. She gestured to the comic book storage containers that were on display behind her. "Or maybe some boxes?"

Each box had a different design on it. One had zombies, another had a picture of a certain clawed superhero from the land of Wakanda, and the last one had all the Avengers on it.

Yeri would be lying if she said she didn't think the boxes were cool looking, but she couldn't justify spending a lot of money on something she already had at home. The containers she had were boring and plain in comparison, but they did what they were intended to do: store her comics safely. She didn’t need anything fancy...even if they had nice designs.

“I think I’m fine for now,” Yeri replied. “But thanks.”

Joy smiled before punching in a few buttons and recited the total. “Okay your total for today is $88.34.”

Usually hearing the total of her purchases made Yeri’s heart ache, but this time it didn’t hurt. Maybe it was because she had a cute girl in front of her that she didn’t mind spending that amount of money.

Who knows.

She reached into her pocket, took out her wallet and pulled out her card to pay and jumped when she heard a squeal that definitely didn’t come from her mouth.

“Oh my god! That's so cute!"

Yeri was confused and just stared blankly at Joy. What was she talking about? The card in her hand? There was nothing particularly eye catching about it. It was just a standard blue credit card from her bank. She could’ve got a design on it, but what would’ve cost $15 extra and she thought that spending extra money just to have a picture was a waste of money when she could’ve spent it on better things like food.

Apparently Joy must have noticed that Yeri didn’t know what she was squealing about because she pointed with excitement at the wallet in Yeri’s hand. “Your wallet. It's adorable!"

_Oh. So that’s what she meant._

It was a standard sized wallet with galaxy print and a picture of a cartoony looking angry unicorn with a bloody horn and breathing fire; a gift from Saeron for her last birthday. 

“Thanks. I got it for my birthday.”

“It’s awesome! Do you know where she got it?”

Yeri took a moment to pause and think. She vaguely recalled asking Saeron the same question and was sure that the question was answered, but she couldn’t for the life of her exactly remember what the other girl said. 

She’d have to text her best friend later to ask...if she wasn’t mad about Yeri replying late earlier that is.

“Sorry. I don’t, but I can ask my friend the next time I see her.” 

“I’ll be waiting~” 

Seriously whoever Joy’s parents were must have been very good looking to have created such a beauty. Her taller stature was just a bonus. Yeri could stare at her all day and not get tired. 

“Oh would you like a bag for your stuff?” Joy pulled out one from under the counter and showed it to Yeri, who thought she looked like one of the girls on those game shows that only appeared to show off some prize a contestant could potentially win if they played the game right. “Ah we don’t charge for it. You know since we’re not a grocery store or anything.”

The people voted and changed the law regarding the use of plastic bags, claiming that doing so would help the earth. Yeri wasn’t sure if that was what was actually happening or if it was just another way for the government to make money, but she did know that a majority of the customers she talked to abhorred the new law and complained about it whenever she asked the same question even though it was part of her job. 

Yeri didn’t really need the bag, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to get one. Besides she could reuse it later on for something else. Gotta recycle, reduce, reuse; a catch phrase that a certain cartoon dinosaur who loved recycling would sing about repeatedly (it was something she was forced to watch in school as a child and would randomly pop up whenever she thought about recycling.)

“Sure why not.”

“Alrighty,” Joy chirped as she carefully placed the comics into the plastic bag and pointed to the card reader in front of her. “Insert your card now please.”

Yeri did as she was instructed to and went through the motions. As soon as the machine told her to remove her card, she did and placed it back in her wallet for safekeeping. The last thing she needed in life was to lose her credit card by doing something stupid like shoving it into her pocket and forgetting about it later on.

The printer hummed as it printed out the receipt and Joy ripped it out of the machine. “Do you want your receipt in the bag or in your hand?”

Yeri didn’t really have a preference. Either way she was probably going to throw the receipt in the garbage later on, but she didn’t want to carry anything more in her pockets other than the essentials like her wallet and keys. “In the bag is fine.”

Joy nodded and dropped the receipt in the bag before handing it to Yeri, their fingers brushing against each other in the process.

“Thanks. Have a good one,” responded Yeri as she picked up her bag, momentarily forgetting that she wasn’t at work. That’s what happened when you repeat the same phrase hundreds of times a day. The only thing different about this time was that she actually meant it.  
  
“You too. Nice meeting you!” Joy said as she gave an enthusiastic wave. “See you around.”

Yeri looked over her shoulder and smiled as she waved back, hoping that her face didn’t look angry while doing so since she suffered from a terrible illness that affected one in ten people. RBF (which is also commonly known as resting bitch face.)

The bell above the door rang again as Yeri exited the store. As soon as she heard the door behind her close shut, she let out a deep breath she didn’t realize she was holding in.

She walked to her car in a daze and almost tripped over something that was randomly in the way, but managed to catch herself in time before eating a mouthful of concrete. Yeri looked behind her to see if anyone around saw her fail of the day.

Other than the stray cat that was sitting on top of a car that was parked nearby, the coast was clear.

Why there was a shoe in the middle of the parking lot was beyond her. Maybe someone got mad at their significant other and threw their shoe out? She saw it happen before. But if that was the case, why only throw one shoe and not both?

The more she thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. That is until it hit her.

_Don’t tell me...that shoe belonged to the guy who ran out of the store earlier._

It was certainly plausible. 

Whatever. If he lost his shoe, that was on him. If it really was important to him, he would’ve came back for it. 

It wouldn’t do to just leave the shoe there where other people could potentially trip on it so she kicked it out of the way.

There was no way in hell she was going to touch it with her fingers. Who knew what kinds of gross germs she would’ve been in contact with. It was bad enough she had to touch money almost every day. Everyone knew that money was dirty. Hell some bills probably were shoved in the thong of a stripper at some point in their lives. The possibilities were endless. 

Satisfied with her good deed of the day, she continued her trek to her car and tapped on the “unlock” button twice on her keys to unlock the doors. After she got inside the car and sat in the driver’s seat, she carefully placed her bag of comics in the passenger’s seat and stared aimlessly in the space in front of her for a few moments before resting her head on the steering wheel and squealing.

 _“_ God she was so cute!”

Yeri may not have been able to go to the store as often as she liked due to her work schedule, but if Joy was going to be there....

She had another reason to go back more often.

* * *

After her visit, Yeri couldn’t help but feel lighter and happier than usual. It was...different. Not a bad kind of different, but it was actually pretty nice break from constantly dreading the next day with the knowledge that she had to go back to her horrible job yet again.

The comic book collector sat on her bed as she laid the bag of comics on the mattress and carefully took them out. She needed to put them away in protective sleeves and store them in their respective sections ASAP, but only after she finished reading them and got caught up on the stories.

While taking out her comics, something small and rectangular fell out, immediately capturing her attention.

“What’s this?” Curious, Yeri picked up the mysterious object and saw that it was the business card for the comic book store she visited.

Strange. She didn’t recall picking one up during her time there. Not that Yeri needed one, she pretty much had the business hours memorized by heart after going there so many times.

She turned the business card over and saw a message hastily written in pen, but still legible.

**_Come back soon. ;)_ **

**_-Joy_ **

  
Yeri screamed.

**Author's Note:**

> One can never have too much JoyRi in their lives.
> 
> I kinda wanted to make this longer, but this has been sitting in my drafts for a while so I figured why not just post it.
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to read. :)


End file.
